I think both interpretations are true. I think he did think they were so brilliant and novel that they could ignore the rules. I think it's reasonable and proba

I think both interpretations are true. I think he did think they were so brilliant and novel that they could ignore the rules. I think it's reasonable and probably legally correct to interpret that as fraud (with self destructing messages being strong evidence of mens rea). I think he really didn't intend for things to go wrong. I think he probably thought "we're all gunnuh make it," or "(3,3)" as Levine describes it in today's Money Stuff. I think now that everything has collapsed, he's trying to weaponize his rationalizations to maneuver himself into a better position (nonspecifically, there's no plan he's just trying to see what kind of better position is possible. I provide some admittedly sparse evidence for that here [1]). In order to lie convincingly, you must first lie to yourself. His method is a sort of "sincere bullshit." That excuses nothing but is necessary for a complete understanding of the story. SBF wasn't an exit scammer, or he would left with the money much earlier. He wasn't a Madoff character, or he wouldn't have attracted so much attention. A better comparison is Holmes. They were both looking to build an empire and probably believed they would eventually make good on all or most of their promises. This is a really dangerous form of con artist, because they can take in everyone - the greedy who want to ride the hype, the optimists who want to implement the vision, the desperate who need to believe in something, we can all fall for this sort of thing. IANAL [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33910390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33910390